Mendez

Mendez's experience with Brookesia superciliaris

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Captive Experience Breeding Experience

  • Captive Experience
    From 1 to 3 years
    Experience began in December, 2020

    Total Specimens
    5
    Oldest Male
    2 years 6 months
    Oldest Female
    2 years 9 months

    WC Specimens
    5
    WC Gravid Females
    2

    Captive Experience

    Some Brookesia superciliaris come in really rough shape. I find it helpful to cup-feed them when they first come in and when they show no signs of having the will to hunt for food. Sometimes they will just sit on a branch and waste away. So I get one of those tiny 2 oz deli cups that ketchup is usually served in and toss some crickets in there. I place the cup as close as I can to the individual chameleon. Ideally within 4 inches of the animal. The cup is black so they don't accidently try to shoot through a clear plastic cup.

    Healthier individuals won't need to be cup-fed. But you can try it if you want to see if they are eating. Pygmy chameleons will cruise through their enclosure slowly, which gives them the opportunity to hunt crickets. If they are moving about, or even stationary (but look healthy), I would just toss crickets in, no cup needed.

    Some of these animals come in with dermal fungus. If it's very severe, I would look into some anti-fungal creams. I personally don't have experience using a cream, so I can't recommend a brand. I did have a male develop a fungus patch on his skin in my care. But I reduced the humidity in the cage and the fungus patch disappeared over a span of a couple of weeks.
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  • Breeding Experience
    Less than 1 year
    Breeding experience began in June, 2023

    Total Clutches
    2

    Breeding Notes

    Take my notes with a grain of salt, especially since my sample size is so small--a single female. She's the only one who has laid eggs so far. But my second female is gravid. So I hope to update these notes soon, fingers crossed. The female laid a clutch of three eggs at first, then laid a fertile fourth egg later on about a month later. I would expect a clutch size between 2-4 eggs would be average.

    Females have a tendency to get obese. So far, none of my males have had this problem, even when given an abundance of food. For the females, I try to reign in their appetite by throwing in less food. I have heard so many stories of female pygmy chameleons, especially superciliaris getting egg-bound. Though it's hard to say whether they became egg-bound due to eating too much, or whether the stress of the importation process caused an issue. or maybe the owner didn't provide enough laying spots for the chameleon to feel comfortable enough to lay. Having leaf litter and some cork bark caves should do the trick.

    I incubated the eggs between 68-70F at night and 74-78F during the day. Having a day/night fluctuation seems to help. Other people who have had success breeding this species also gave them temperature fluctuations.

    These eggs, in the wild and in captivity, are laid right under the leaf litter (and occasionally under a thin layer of dirt). Because the eggs aren't laid deep in the soil, they are at the mercy of the air temperature which fluctuates from day to night.

    These baby superciliaris hatch out small, needing melanogaster fruit flies. Then they get upgraded to hydei and pinheads. As soon as the babies can eat crickets, feed them crickets. They will grow soooooo much faster and help get them past that delicate stage.

    While these babies hatch out small, they are (from what I've heard) giant compared to other hatchlings like Brookesia thieli.

    Feel free to message me if you have any questions or want me to clarify or expand on proper husbandry.
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